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Face your fears — and get plenty of thrills — tackling a via ferrata

At the summit of CMH Via Ferrata from the Bugaboo Lodge.

Photograph by: Topher Donahue

As we start our ascent, I’m focused almost entirely on buckling my safety harness’s lanyard to a cable snaking up a cliff face without twisting its two carabiners, one facing up, one down. Every few metres, the cable is bolted to rock and the lanyard must be unbuckled and re-attached on the other side.

Then there are the rungs to keep track of. Like hundreds of huge staples, they’re drilled and glued 15 centimetres into the rock and stick out another 15, about a half metre apart.

We’re on a via ferrata, a fixed-route climb popular in Europe, but becoming more common in North America. (They originated as a way to move troops through the Alps in the First World War.) This one is high above Lake Abraham west of Nordegg, about 3 1/2 hours by car northwest of Calgary. It was erected by Custom Outdoor Experience owner Mike Adolph and a team of local climbers six years ago and is open year round. The 500 people who have tackled its 150 metre elevation gain have included families, corporate groups, clubs and schools.

Adolph, a mountain guide certified by the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides and a member of the International Federation of Mountain Guide Associations, recommends anyone using the via ferrata to do so through a guide, although if a climber shows up with a helmet and the correct harness and clips, they could go solo. Adolph stresses the need for guides not so much for when things run smoothly, but as insurance in the event something goes wrong. Getting off the mountain in an emergency, he stresses, could prove tricky without expert help.

The 200-metre-long ferrata gains about 150 metres in elevation and took some 800 man hours to complete. While it was the first such route constructed in Alberta, it may not be the only one for much longer. Banff’s Mount Norquay is also keen to get into the game and a via ferrata is the keystone in its plans for a summer revamp it hopes will turn the winter ski hill into a year-round destination.

If all goes according to plan (the hill recently cleared a key regulatory hurdle by gaining approval from Parks Canada), Norquay’s ferrata will be built in the rock buttresses and cliffs above the renovated Cliffhouse at the top of a chairlift.

Norquay’s John Thornton said the routes will lead to the Mount Norquay summit ridge combining via ferrata segments on rock with hiking segments in between and are scheduled to open in mid-June 2014. The design includes a short route of about one to two hours and a longer route of four hours, said Thornton, who visited via ferratas in Italy to prepare for the Mount Norquay project. The ski resort is working with a French company that has installed more than 100 ferratas in Europe. Thornton added that groups will scale the routes with professional guides meeting Parks Canada standards.

“The Norquay via ferrata will be suited for most folks who like to hike or walk, are comfortable with heights,” he says, “and want to experience the alpine rewards of Banff’s mountaintop landscapes.”

In southeast B.C., meanwhile, Canadian Mountain Holidays, the veteran heli-skiing and heli-hiking operation, has constructed even larger via ferratas. Accessible by climbers who have helicoptered up to the Bobby Burns Lodge, the company’s first Mount Nimbus Ferrata was developed by guides Bruce Howatt and Carl Trescher, opened in the summer of 2009 and now takes about six hours to complete. Since then, CMH has added the Sky Ladder Via Ferrata (out of the Bugaboo Lodge) in 2011 and the Conrad Glacier Adventure hike (which incorporates via ferrata features) in 2012.

CHM’s Sarah Pearson estimates some 400 guests per season from a variety of backgrounds have tried one of the climbs.

“We’ve tried to make a great experience for someone with no experience in mountain climbing but (seeking) a real sense of adventure,” says Pearson, adding that all trips onto the ferratas are led by internationally certified guides. “Visually it’s spectacular. You get up there and you’re sitting on top of the world looking out at the Columbia Range. Maybe you’re a city dweller from New York and we drop you into this experience.”

Adolph says the ferrata at Nordegg has proven to be an eye-opener for many people who have never climbed, allowing novices to tackle terrain in about an hour that experienced rock or mountain climber would cover in five or six hours.

Nearly anyone who can handle the steep switchbacks from the parking area up to the via ferrata’s start can handle the climb, even those who are a bit leery of heights. (Adolph says he’s helped a number who wanted to face their fears.)

“It’s suited for people who don’t always take the elevator,” Adolph says. “If a person really wants to do it, we can find a way.”

About halfway, we stop for some water and rest on a ledge. Adolph insists I look out over the lake below, taking in the scenery, enjoying the moment. That, after all, is the reason we’re here. As we start again I become more comfortable with the mechanics of the safety gear and more aware of the route, of finding foot and handholds in the rock whenever I can, using the rungs only when necessary. I feel like I’m climbing, and it’s thrilling.

As we clamber over the last ledge and onto a plateau above the rock face, I’m ready for more. So are most of his clients, says Adolph, which is why he’s already thinking about building another, longer ferrata in the area. (The hike up to the starting point, combined with the two-hour climb and walk down makes the excursion a good half day.)

“For a lot of people, it’s a connection to something they wouldn’t otherwise do. I’ve seen such a sense of achievement from the people I’ve climbed with that sooner or later, I’ll have another built.”

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